The present invention relates generally to mechanisms for raising and lowering toilet lid and seat members and, more particularly, to a mechanism utilizing the source of flushing water associated with a toilet for hydraulically raising and lowering the toilet lid and seat members.
The need for an efficient and safe mechanism for automatically raising and lowering the lid and seat members of a toilet bowl has long been recognized. The most often advanced justification for the provision of mechanisms of this general type involves the concern for hygiene wherein the necessity for the user of the toilet to handle or touch the toilet seat and/or lid is eliminated thereby preventing contamination should such members of the toilet not be in a thoroughly sanitary condition. A less frequently given justification is the convenience that such a mechanism affords the user of the toilet.
Ideally, a toilet seat and lid lifting and lowering mechanism should be capable of independently providing positive control of the position of the toilet lid and seat, it should be safe and convenient to operate and it should be inexpensive to manufacture and relatively easy to install requiring no significant modifications of the toilet bowl or water tank. While the relevant prior art discloses numerous examples of toilet seat and lid lifting and lowering mechanisms, none of these prior art mechanisms are known to satisfy all of the foregoing requirements.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,200,687 to Bercot and 3,404,411 to Newkirk both disclose apparatus for automatically closing the toilet lid and seat some time after having been manually raised to an open position. The Bercot device, in addition, includes means for actuating the toilet flushing valve at the same time. U.S. Pat. No. 2,636,185 to Boston, on the other hand, discloses a mechanism employing spring force for automatically raising the toilet seat to its open substantially vertical position when not in use. In all of the foregoing cases, some manual manipulation of the toilet lid and seat is necessary to effect complete control thereover whereby these devices are not totally hygenically safe.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,821,027 to Oya and 2,214,323 to Carter both disclose apparatus operable for independently raising the toilet lid and seat through the agency of a hydraulic cylinder which is operable in response to the toilet water supply for linearly displacing a plunger or piston rod in a single predetermined direction to effect the desired movement of the toilet lid and seat. Suitably biased spring members are then used to lower the lid and seat after the water pressure has been relieved. U.S. Pat. No. 2,849,728 to Gyllenberg discloses a somewhat similar device except that both the lid and seat are raised simultaneously and lowering thereof is subsequently effected under the weight of the members after the water pressure has been removed. Toilet lid/seat lifting and lowering devices of the foregoing type are generally considered undesirable due to the lack of positive control provided. In particular, the time of seat lowering is not totally under the control of the toilet user but, rather, is largely dependent on the lowering mechanism itself. In addition, the spring members employed in these devices are quite cumbersome rendering their use highly undesirable.
The foregoing deficiences in the prior art are overcome by the toilet lid/seat lifting and lowering mechanism of the present invention which differs from the prior art in the provision of a pair of actuating members hydraulically reciprocable in two directions for positively controlling the movement of the toilet lid and seat at the complete discretion of the toilet user.